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How philanthropy can support the arts in an age of activism

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Lincoln Jones doesnt like to talk about ballet. Thats because as the founder of American Contemporary Ballet, his Los Angeles-based company of 21 dancers that mounts some 70 performances a year, he thinks about ballet in a different way than most. Imagine a theoretical art form that is populated by almost impossibly beautiful creatures, he says. Angels, practically, angels inhabited by pure rhythm, and moving in a way that is unmistakable proof of human nobility.

Joness reverence for ballet has meant going against the grain of traditional staging, bringing the art form to warehouses and open spaces where his audiences can be immersed in the performances. But his quest for independence also goes beyond the stage. In summer 2020, Jones found himself dancing on a newly unstable platform. Like arts organizations across the country, Jones was pressured to post a black square to his companys social media accounts. The reason: to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter. It wasnt just a request. It was more like a demand. Yet, Jones refused. One of the few arts leaders to do so, he faced a backlash that almost overturned his company.

In 2020, they tried to kill us, he recounts. The black square swept the arts world. Everyone was supposed to post the black square in support of Black Lives Matter. I didnt do it. For one, because I read what Black Lives Matter was and I didnt support it. And, two, it was not my prerogative to represent the artists in my company politically.

For his sin of omission, Joness dancers were threatened. They feared for the future of their careers. They worried they would be ostracized from the world of dance. But Jones stood his ground, writing an open letter to his company explaining his actions. There were resignations and loss of funding, but his audience returned. Now, two years later, as other LA-based arts organizations still find their numbers down, American Contemporary Ballet is up and dancing to a sold-out run.

There is no thought of the moralizing and the guilt trips that now come with what should be joyful, personal and celebratory experiences, Jones says of the impact of todays politics on the arts.

In contrast, for his company, Not a single audience member has complained that we have not apologized for the land we are dancing on, or the music that were dancing to or the color of our skin, said Jones. They all just seem to want a good show.

Jones is now one of the signatories of Philanthropy Roundtables True Diversity Initiative, which published a statement of principles pledging to return love, compassion and empathy to the diversity conversation by embracing an equality-based perspective. His journey reveals the challenges of finding a middle ground in a culture that has become anything but neutral. The same is true for todays arts funders who seek to stay above the fray of contemporary politics.

The problem is that, in the past few years, mainstream arts organizations have become besotted with politics. Transcendence is out. Presentism is in. Arts for arts sake? Today, it can seem more like art for the sake of climate change, social justice or racial redress. In the news, we now see activists storming museums to throw soup at paintings or glue themselves to the walls. Yet these outward convulsions often only mirror the vandalism from within. Mainstream arts leaders are attacking the legacies of their own institutions. The director of the American Museum of Natural History has overseen the destruction of her institutions memorial to Theodore Roosevelt. The director of the Whitney Museum of American Art gave the green light to an exhibition that attacked one of his own trustees, who was forced to resign. The director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art has called his institution connected with a logic of what is defined as white supremacy.

In a recent City Journal article, Guardians in Retreat, Heather Mac Donald decries the firing of the 82 volunteer docents at the Art Institute of Chicago and their replacement with six paid educators. The reason? The color of their skin. In the mantra of diversity, equity and inclusion, the museum claimed its docent program had centered certain stories while marginalizing and suppressing others.

Mac Donald continues:

The racialist wave that swept the United States following the arrest-related death of George Floyd in May 2020 has taken down scientists, artists and journalists. Entire traditions, whether in the humanities, music or scientific discovery, have been reduced to one fatal characteristic: whiteness. And now the anti-white crusade is targeting a key feature of American exceptionalism: the spirit of philanthropy and volunteerism.

Beyond these racialized attacks, cultural philanthropy continues to find itself up against the notion that charity should be spent on only utilitarian concerns. The Princeton philosopher Peter Singer reflects this Benthamite attitude, named for English writer Jeremy Bentham, in his book The Life You Can Save: Philanthropy for the arts or for cultural activities is, in a world like this one, morally dubious.

Singer pointed to the $45 million the Metropolitan Museum of Art spent on a Duccio painting in 2004 as an amount that would pay for cataract operations for nearly one million blind people in the developing world. If the museum were on fire, he wrote, would anyone think it right to save the Duccio from the flames, rather than a child?

Of course, the choice is a false equivalence. Philanthropy is not a zero-sum equation. A dollar directed to a museum does not remove a dollar from a hospital, food bank or shelter. And the soul is a vital organ of its own. American philanthropists have long understood this call as they established a vital legacy of arts support. Without a monarchy, largely with support from the state, private philanthropy created and underwrote American cultural organizations in ways that have become the envy of the world and a reflection of the virtues of our democratic ideals. Unfortunately, for many of todays progressive cultural leaders, these ideals are just the problem as they seek to overturn this democratic legacy and undermine American legitimacy. They check all of the boxes except the one that matters: as Jones puts it, the box for human nobility.

For philanthropists who still believe in Americas founding principles, funding for the arts can be a dance of its own. Sometimes the answer is to go it alonefunding ones own cultural projects. With support from the Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund, the painter Jacob Collins founded a school called the Grand Central Atelier in 2014after taking on students informally for more than two decadesthat is dedicated to reviving the classical traditions of art. His first students from the 1990s have become his faculty, and his school now attracts students and attention from across the globe. Likewise in 2009, Rick DeVos founded ArtPrize, a contemporary art competition and festival that has invigorated Grand Rapids, Michigan, by offering nearly $500,000 in prizes and attracting half a million visitors a year, with art displayed throughout the city.

Fortunately, outside of the world of land acknowledgments, preferred pronouns and black squares, there are still partners to be found who value art for arts sake and the freedom that spirit represents. Take Riverside Symphony, composer and cofounder Anthony Korfs 41-year-old Lincoln Center orchestra that rejects identity politics through its concerts and music literacy program for inner-city school children.

We program music on the basis of its value, or the potential of a contemporary composer to achieve that stature over time, he says, going against the DEI mandates of many of todays foundation functionaries.

Or consider the National Civic Art Society, the advocacy organization led by Justin Shubow promoting Americas classical vernacular as envisioned by the Founding Fathers.

We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us, Shubow says, quoting Winston Churchill. Our Founding Fathers were architects in their own right. They chose classical architecture to harken back to Rome and Athens.

What these arts organizations all share is a commitment to beauty and excellence that rises above contemporary trends and political convenience.

The answer for todays arts funders, one museum trustee tells me, is to look beyond the biggest organizations and the supposed prestige conferred by their board seats. Instead, he says, Look to the second and third tier museum, noting the abundance of local arts institutions that can still mount serious shows by flying under the radar of the Fords, Mellons and Carnegies and their progressive mandates. Join up with other connoisseurs, he advises, who dont want to be led around by the nose.

Likewise at Bader Philanthropies, one strategy of funding the arts is through its Building Resilient Communities initiative. Through this strategy, says the program officer Bridgett Gonzalez, we are able to embrace the rich cultural diversity that embodies our local artistic community, exemplified through creative and traditional art forms.

When it comes to the arts, the solution, ultimately, goes beyond the politics of left and right. There is a very specific political ideology that has taken over, concludes Lincoln Jones. It has for a very long time. This did not start in 2020. You have art that is politically based. And then there is art that is based on the human desire for connection and spirituality.

Nevertheless, to avoid the politics of art, it now takes some understanding of the art of politics and a willingness to dig deeper into the cultural organizations that expect your support. The question is not what is right or left, but what is right or wrong when it comes to the arts and the bravery to embrace, in English poet Matthew Arnolds famous phrase, what is still the best that has been thought and said in the world.

James Panero is the executive editor of The New Criterion.

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Saving the Arts from Politics and Presentism - Philanthropy Roundtable

FBI agents worked about 16,000 more hours during the pay period of the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, than they did during the pay period of the 2020 riots that hit Washington, D.C.

Thats according to documents obtained by The Heritage Foundations Oversight Project through the Freedom of Information Act. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of Heritage Foundation.)

Payroll records for FBI agents in the Washington, D.C., field office show they worked a total of 86,262 hours in the Jan 4, 2021, to Jan. 17, 2021, pay period, during which the Capitol riot occurred involving those opposing Congress certification of the 2020 presidential election in which Joe Biden defeated then-President Donald Trump. Trump alleged irregularities and did not immediately concede the race.

By contrast, during the May 25, 2020, to June 7, 2020, pay period, when the Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots were occurring in the District of Columbia, payroll records show that FBI agents worked a combined total of 70,367 hours.

It was on May 29, 2020, at Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., that rioters gathered near the White House and set fire to the historic St. Johns Episcopal Church. The violence outside the White House prompted the Secret Service to move Trump and others into the White House bunker.

The FBI did not provide information about how many of the more than 86,000 hours were spent on Jan. 6 cases alone, according to the Heritage Oversight Project, which is suing for more transparency.

The Heritage Oversight Project obtained FBI records that show the time spent on all investigations. According to whistleblowers, FBI agents were said to have been pulled offserious felony investigations to worknearly solely onJan. 6 misdemeanors.

Were suing the FBI because they deserve it, and because these documents belong to the American people, Mike Howell, director of the Heritage Oversight Project, told The Daily Signal.

Its clear the FBI and Justice Department have been weaponized, Howell added. These numbers show the lengths they will go to to surge resources towards nonviolent offenses that fit their political narratives.In the midst of a [George] Soros-funded crime wave, law enforcement should focus their resources where they are needed and put an end to the gangs, rapes, carjackings, and murders that have become all too common.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, most government documents are presumed open to the public, with some specific exceptions.

In the first week of the 2020 riots, about 150 local and federal law enforcement officers were injured in the District of Columbia. The 2020 riots ultimately incurred $2 billion in property damage nationally and resulted in at least 19 deaths, according to news reports.

The FBI did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Daily Signal for this story.

Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please emailletters@DailySignal.comand well consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular We Hear You feature. Remember to include the url or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.

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EXCLUSIVE: FBI Devoted 16,000 More Hours to Jan. 6 Than to BLM ... - Daily Signal

Amid news that Donald Trump is about to be indicted by a hyperpartisan prosecutor and of his hysterical responses, and prompted by vagrant reading about the War of 1812 and Woodrow Wilsons violations of civil liberties in World War I, a thought occurred to me. America seems to go crazy every 50 years or so.

Start with the War of 1812, about 50 years after colonies Stamp Act protests. Theres a touch of absurdity here. Because of the slowness of trans-Atlantic communication, Congress declared war because of British restrictions on neutral shipping six days after the British repealed them. Americans won their major land victory in New Orleans, 15 days after the peace treaty had already been signed in Ghent.

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The Americans strategy was based on a delusion that Canadians would welcome American conquest and American tactics were riddled with blunders. Detroit was surrendered without a shot, and Washington was left undefended, allowing the British to burn the White House. The treaty left in place the status quo, and the positive response was psychological, verging on delusional. In historian Gordon Woods words, this inconclusive war did finally establish for Americans that independence and nationhood of the United States that so many had doubted.

Almost exactly 50 years later, the U.S. plunged into civil war, which outgoing President James Buchanan might have prevented by sending troops to secessionist South Carolina, as his mentor Andrew Jackson had done almost thirty years earlier. But the differences were fundamental. Democrats supported the liberty of slaveholders to retain their property anywhere in a nation an increasing number of whose citizens regarded slavery as intolerable. Republicans were determined to deploy the federal government to put slavery, in Abraham Lincolns words, on the path to extinction.

Winfield Scott, a young officer in 1812, provided Lincoln with the Anaconda strategy, squeezing the South by blockade until Grant and Sherman could defeat the Confederate armies. The result wasnt crazy slavery was abolished in an ultimately intact Union. But it all came at a crazy cost, with some 600,000 lives in a nation of 38 million.

Fast forward 50 years to the only American president who spent his boyhood in the Confederacy, watching Sherman march into South Carolina, Woodrow Wilson. After Congress, with 56 dissenters, voted to enter World War I, Wilson superintended the overbroad 1917 Espionage Act. As Adam Hochschild vividly recounts in American Midnight, the Wilson administration imprisoned those who spoke against the war or the draft, including Socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs. Wilson deported aliens supposedly involved in radical activities under the supervision of the twenty-something J. Edgar Hoover. He censored the press, stamping out what liberals today call misinformation, and cooperated with local efforts to suppress German cultural organizations.

As Hochschild makes clear, it wasnt only the Wilson administration that went crazy. Radical anarchists set off deadly bombs on Wall Street, at Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmers house, and across the street from Assistant Navy Secretary Franklin Roosevelt.

The much-derided Red Scare was a response to fears raised by the takeover of the larger and more populous Russia by a handful of Bolsheviks, whose murderous and squalid regime ended up lasting 70 years. Americans a century ago didnt know that this wasnt going to happen here.

Sometimes people can learn from mistakes. In World War II, FDR, who witnessed Wilsons excesses up close, didnt seize the railroads or shipyards. With the important exception of the Japanese American internments, he also didnt violate civil liberties as Wilson had.

Unfortunately, sometimes people dont learn. Fifty years ago, America saw a tripling, roughly, of violent crime and welfare dependency in a decade, even as prison populations were reduced and police delegitimized. A rash of hundreds of violent bombings was followed by serious government misconduct.

Ironically, after the 1964-68 civil rights acts changed America for the better, there were cries that racist treatment of blacks was as bad as ever. America was going crazy again, on schedule.

And so it has in the last few years. After the election and reelection of the first black president, we heard Black Lives Matter, like the Black Panthers 50 years before, proclaim that America was even more racist than it ever had been. Since the mostly peaceful riots of summer 2020, there have been sharp increases in violent crime and moves to defund and delegitimize police departments, which are, in fact, far less racist than in the 1960s.

America went crazy too over COVID, in my view, by treating a virus fatal to just a small segment of the population as if, like Ebola, it had an infection fatality rate of around 50%. Authorities imposed lockdowns and mandates while ignoring economic costs and lasting collateral damage, like adults missing cancer screenings and children missing first and second grade.

Like Woodrow Wilsons propagandist George Creel, government agencies suppressed as misinformation speech and arguments, including many which turned out to be accurate.

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Another symptom of America going crazy is presidential dysfunction. Fifty years ago, the highly intelligent and experienced Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon were ousted at ages 60 and 61 because of Vietnam and Watergate. Now, despite repeated stumbles, the inexperienced and distractable Donald Trump and the (according to bipartisan Defense Secretary Robert Gates) nearly-always-wrong Joe Biden are seeking second terms they would complete at ages 82 and 86, respectively.

Having witnessed and written for publication during two 50-years-apart episodes of craziness, I seek consolation from Adam Smiths reflection, after Britain lost the 13 colonies, that there is a great deal of ruin in a nation. But I hope America will do a better job, 50 years hence, of learning from this episodes mistakes.

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America seems to go crazy every 50 years or so - Washington Examiner

On March 23, 1980, the late recording artist Prince performed for the first time in Detroit. The concert stop was during Rick James Fire It Up tour at Cobo Arena.

Janis Hazel, then a Detroit Cass Tech High School student, begged her parents to attend and they reluctantly approved. Prince, to some music critics, was considered risque. Hazel attended a concert with her older brother, Peter, who enjoyed James, who was the more established artist at the time. James, a music legend who is most noted for his 1981 hit single, Super Freak, died in 2004.

Hazel vividly remembers the concert featuring the iconic performers.

I distinctly recall my brother saying when Prince hit the stage: Who is this little freak in his panties?

I immediately defended Prince, said Hazel. He is a genius, prodigy, has his own distinct style and I love him!

Since that time, Hazel, a communications and public policy professional who worked for Democratic former lawmakers U.S. Reps. John Conyers Jr. of Detroit and Shirley Chisholm of New York City. She also worked for U.S. Sen. Donald Riegle, a Democrat from Flint.

Hazel said that she has attended more than 40 Prince concerts over the years.

Born Prince Rogers Nelson in Minneapolis, he also performed in several cities throughout Michigan, including Auburn Hills, Clarkston, Saginaw, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids. In November 1984, he kicked off his Purple Rain tour at Detroits Masonic Temple. He returned in 1996 to Cobo Arena to hold a concert on his birthday on June 7 of that year.

[Prince] has demonstrated a consciousness for the people of this city, said then-Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young in 1984 at the height of Princes career, according to Detroit News reporting.

The recording artist was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

During his life, Prince supported the Black Lives Matter movement and in 2012 donated money to Trayvon Martins family after the unarmed African American teen was fatally shot in Florida by a neighborhood watch volunteer. In addition, Prince reportedly donated to human rights charities.

His last Detroit performance was in April 2015 at the Fox Theatre. Prince died at age 57 in April 2016 after accidentally overdosing on fentanyl.

Detroit artist Charles Chazz Miller designed a mural of Prince in the citys Old Redford community immediately after Princes death.

In Minnesota, the legislature is currently considering a measure, HF 717, that would name a stretch of Highway 5 for Prince.

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In the belly of WXPNs radio station at 30th and Walnut streets, members of the Black Opry Residency huddle inside a recording studio around trailblazing country artist Rissi Palmer, who recalls the challenges of her early career as a Black woman in country music.

Picture it: Nashville, 2007, she starts.

Though she opens as if to regale with a Sophia Petrillo-esque tale of days gone by, her story is one thats quite contemporary and all too relevant to the world Black Americana artists operate in. Palmer recalls a music video shoot gone horribly wrong under the guidance of a manager who, to put it lightly, neither understood her nor what it meant to be a Black country artist. The message to the residents: Be your authentic selves and dont settle for a bad manager with a big name.

Its one of many lessons imparted upon five Black Americana musicians selected from among a pool of 100 applicants to participate in the Black Opry Residency, hosted by WXPN, funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, and produced in collaboration with Black Opry, a platform and touring revue founded by Holly G to amplify the voices and music of Black country artists. The Black Opry residents spent the week of March 19 learning from mentors like Amos Lee and Palmer, collaborating with one another through song shares, and will perform in a showcase at World Caf Live on March 24.

Among the residents: Tylar Bryant, a Texas native from Nashville who adds a rock and pop flair to traditional country; Denitia, another Texas native now based in Nashville whose sound is experimental but rooted in country; Grace Givertz, a Florida native and current Bostonian who leans toward folk with banjo as a constant; Brandon and Derek Campbell, aka The Kentucky Gentlemen, who blend country-pop with R&B; and Samantha Rise, a Philadelphia-based teacher, activist, and performer whose dreamlike music draws from indie folk.

We have the full continuum of [Americana sound], says Bruce Warren, assistant general manager for programming at WXPN. Warren, in addition to co-organizing the residency, was part of a six-person committee that selected the residents, including Holly G, WXPN General Manager Roger LaMay, WXPN Black Opry Residency Project Manager Nathan Tempro, country singer Miko Marks, and Palmer.

Theres a range of Americana music [among the residents], including everything from a more singer-songwriter-oriented sound to country flavor, and folky to bluegrass. And as you make your way through that continuum theres also the mainstream Black country artist who is mostly ignored by mainstream country radio, says Warren.

Jasmine Henry, an assistant professor of music in the School of Arts & Sciences, explains that the structure of the modern U.S. music industrywhich emerged only in the early 20th centuryhas largely buried the Black history of Americana. Recent scholarship, she says, has sought to reclaim this history.

Its a story of erasure, says Henry. There are scholars, artists, and journalists who have been working to really address this erasure and think about not just how to amplify the voices and uncover those silenced or hidden in history but think about what forces were at play that created these types of erasures and continue to limit opportunities for Black people in Americana.

While Americana might commonly summon images of predominantly white, Appalachian music or culture, she says, the genres roots stem from an intertwining of European and African musical cultures as a result of plantation slavery. Influences that created Americana ranged from Irish jig music to African folk musicwhich, though many think of African music as drum-based, Henry says, also included strings. This history, combined with the banning of drums among people who were enslaved, is how popular Americana string instruments like the fiddlea prevalent instrument in African folk music cultureand the banjo came to have such influence.

Thats a lot of the grounding that gets overlooked and makes it harder to see the connection between Blackness and Americana that was right there at [the genres] foundation, Henry says.

The recent uptick in attention to reclaiming Americanas Black history, she notes, can be attributed to a confluence of events in the past decade, such as Black Lives Matter and the protests surrounding the killing of George Floyd, the success of Lil Nas X with Old Town Road, and the success of Beyonces Lemonade, which sought to reclaim the Black roots of several different genres, including rock, electronic dance music, and country.

Theres also a broader discussion about other genres, such as rock music and its Black roots, or electronic dance music, which is my area, and its Black roots, she says. And so theres a broader discussion about how many of them have been whitewashed, and theyre Black and queer, and how these roots are hidden in history.

Another key part of that dialogue, she adds, is about genre and its commercial origins to limit audiences, segmenting them by race, gender, class, and sexuality.

I think it takes a lot for people to break through that, she says.

For two decades, WXPN has cast a spotlight on emerging artists through its Artist to Watch series. Born from that foundation is the Black Opry Residency, which is a manifold expansion of that effort and targets the groundswell of activity in Americana to amplify the voices of Black Americana musicians.

[Americana] is an important part of American music, and in particular with Black Opry, this is an effort to diversify and tear down some walls in country music, as well as Americanawhich is a bigger tent than just country music, says LaMay.

The structure of the week was developed by surveying the needs of Black artists through the Black Opry network. The residents, he explains, benefit during the residency from the mentor connections of the station, the collaborations with one another, the broadcast exposure of WXPN, and, moreover, the urban experience of being in Philadelphia. The residents were housed in a former frat home at 39th and Walnut streets.

In the early [planning] stages we were told by people in the residency world that its unusual to do something in an urban setting, LaMay says. Its usually out in the woods somewhere. So, were very excited to be working that into a residency that not only uses the facilities of the station but also gives these residents a chance to experience a bit of Philadelphia and its heritage.

The residents saw Jill Scott perform at the Met in North Philadelphia, for example, and ate at local restaurants that range from Bookers in West Philadelphia to South, a jazz restaurant on North Broad Street.

In truth, the Black Opry Residency is what he considers a pilot for what WXPN can accomplish in the future. To his knowledge, he says, WXPN is the only public radio station that has attempted an artist-development residency program, and this likely will not be the stations last.

The Kentucky Gentlemen, twin brothers Derek and Brandon Campbell from Lexington, Kentucky, recall listening to Billy Currington on the school bus, as well as being hooked on country music that a person they playfully call Radio Mana patient of their mothers (a therapist)would habitually play in her waiting room. They did not choose country music, they explain, country music chose us.

They applied for the residency after several friends reached out and recommended they apply, they explained. They couldnt be happier that they did.

We joked earlier that [this residency] is intensiveThis is school! laughs Derek Campbell. I think this is super important because all of us are taking up space in country and Americana in our own way, and to be able to put our best foot forward and take our moments and use them to their utmost ability, I think its pivotal for progress in the industry and thats why this is history.

As twins, they explain, theyre used to working together. Growing up, they both took ballet and piano lessons and later played high school football. They became a musical duo when, after returning home from their respective colleges after six months, they collectively decided they wanted to be creatives in their career; working together on music, it was obvious that what naturally came out of them was country.

They describe their current sound as fun, dramatic, pop- and R&B-adjacent country with a gloss of glamour, Brandon Campbell says. Theyre inspired by artists like Brooks & Dunn, Kacey Musgraves, and Maren Morris. Derek Campbell says they relate to artists who are outspoken and can stand 10 toes down and arent afraid to break rules.

All of us are taking up space in country and Americana in our own way, and to be able to put our best foot forward and take our moments and use them to their utmost ability, I think its pivotal for progress in the industry.Derek Campbell, member of The Kentucky Gentlemen

Grace Givertz, who grew up in Jupiter, Florida, had a different path to country music: Until Taylor Swift came on the scene, she barely listened to it at all.

My first guitar, when I was 11 years old, was a sparkly Daisy Rock that looked just like Taylors, she says. It was essentially a toy, looking back on it, but I used it until I was 18 and wrote my first songs on that guitar. I just continued based on Taylor and listened to the radio more and the influence was like, Wow, wait, this is a genre I really love.

But then, Oh, wait, Im a disabled Black girl and theres no spot for me here.

So, she dug into the roots of Americana, folk, and bluegrass, and was inspired by the genres Black history.

I realized, I need to play banjo yesterday, she adds.

Now, banjo is a regular fixture in her indie-folk music and shes proud to reclaim it. Through the residency, she says, shes been inspired to see how others have not limited themselves through genre and are not afraid to break the mold.

Its also been really helpful because when youre in a room with people who have information to give you, mentors, different industry folk, its hard to know the right questions to ask, she says. So, having so many people around you who can bounce other questions is really helpful because youre not going to have the opportunity to ask all the questions if you dont think of them.

Through the residency, she explains, she hopes to not only build out her network but seek inspiration for an album shes currently working on.

I want to use it to catapult and make this record do what I think it deserves to do, she says. Which is to be heard by a lot of people, hopefully.

Denitia, meanwhile, grew up in a variety of refinery towns outside of Houston, Texas, and was exposed to country music through her family. After a four-year stint in Nashville, attending Vanderbilt University, she spent a brief time in Austin and then moved to New York City for 10 years to experiment with her soundparticularly by picking up DIY production skills. While there, she put out music and toured as Denitia and Senean electronic, R&B, indie-pop groupbefore moving to Rockaway Beach in New York City, where she eventually tapped back into a country sound that culminated in her 2022 album Highways. Shes since returned to Nashville.

It felt full circle, she says of tapping into her country roots. It felt like I had finally expressed the whole gamut of who I am as an artist and now that Ive put all these things out there, music thats country to me, that is resonating with people and feels pure, earnest, and honest, Im moving forward and really excited to take all those elements and roll them together to come into a different door in the country music world.

She was interested in the residency because of its collective experience and the ability to communicate with other Black artists in the Americana space, she says. Shes also, frankly, a fan of WXPN.

Im a big fan of what this radio station does for music and for culture, she says. Its an honor to be celebrated by them, and it just feels the reason I applied for this residency is I feel like Im at an exciting point in my career and I wanted to be part of this community, but also because I respect the taste-making nature of this radio station.

LaMay says one goal of the residency is to enable this group of musicians to elevate their artistic practice while giving them additional tools, contacts, and capacity to make a living doing it.

And to know that theyre not alone in this effort, he adds. If even one of them lands a recording or publishing deal or takes a big step forward out of this, it would be a success for all involved.

For now, WXPN hopes to jumpstart that process by featuring the residents on air and exposing them to Philadelphia live and radio audiences through a showcase performance on March 24 at World Cafe Live that will also be streamed on NPR Music Live Sessions. They will each perform a short set of original music.

The residency is also a step toward furthering audience development in a way that is explicitly inclusive, LaMay adds.

Obviously XPN has played Black artists for a very long time, he says, but its important for us to make sure that some of our programs are geared toward telling Black audiences that theres a home for you here.

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WXPN's Black Opry Residency reclaims Americana as the inclusive ... - Penn Today